I recently moved my office to be approximately two minutes from the center that I run at Washington and Lee. It’s a beautiful space in downtown Lexington, and I couldn’t be more pleased with the move.
One of the primary driving factors behind the change was so that I could be closer to the center and the new student employees that I’m hiring for next academic year. The thinking goes that by being closer, I’ll be able to be more responsive, help things get off the ground, and generally move faster. This, in many ways, makes a lot of sense to me.
And yet…
Proximity also creates a closeness that makes it harder to see broader, more strategic objectives. By staying close, we cannot see the big picture. Conversely, seeing the big picture means we can’t (at least in the moment) stay close.
Physical proximity has implications, both good and bad. It’s important to have first, second, and third spaces to be proximate to different things at different times and, in doing so, help provide some perspective on the others.